Richmond Police clear cold case double homicide from 1995

The RTD has the story of a double homicide from 1995 that was only recently re-opened and cleared:

Jones and Ellett were sitting in the front of Ellett’s Mitsubishi Diamante about 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, 1995, when someone sitting behind them shot them both in the head, Williams said. It happened in the 1500 block of Rogers Street near the intersection with Fairfield Avenue.

The two men were childhood friends. Ellett, a 22-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University student, had just bought the Mitsubishi that day. Jones was a former dancer for the Richmond Ballet who was working in an eyeglasses store.

“These were some good guys,” Williams said. “Never wanted to hurt anybody.”

There were 119 people killed in Richmond in 1995, and a whopping 161 the year before. In 2012, there were 43 homicides in the city; so far in 2013 there have been 22 (on pace for 34 for the year). The lowest body count in recent years was 32 in 2008, which was the best year since 1961.